How much did Tepper's decision to move on from Bridgewater cost the Panthers?

[JawnyBlaze]

Better question is how much the mistake to cut Cam and sign Teddy in the first place cost us. 

[frankw]

12 minutes ago, JawnyBlaze said:

Better question is how much the mistake to cut Cam and sign Teddy in the first place cost us. 

Yep. How quickly and badly things soured with that relationship was a big factor in how deadset we were on finding the next starter ASAP. Everyone was waiting to tell the Panthers how wrong they were for that move. Well. Here we are. I've tried to move past all that and I can but what sticks out is the draft picks we've given up. I have to say I've seen a little Dave Gettleman in our front office. Some of this mess was ego driven but their egos got checked real quick. Unfortunately it is us the fans who are left picking up the pieces.

Edited December 5, 2021 by frankw

[Davidson Deac II]

Its ludicrous to think it was "Tepper's" decision.  He might have agreed to it, but it was Ruhle's decision.  And maybe Bridgewater's.  

[Shotgun]

It was bringing Teddy in that really hurt the panthers. Screwed up our draft. We could of been the ones to get all those first round picks that San Fran gave up to get Lance. We should of traded CMC as well when we had the chance, we would be in such a better place. This franchise is run by the dumbest people in the nfl. 

[jayboogieman]

20 minutes ago, BIGH2001 said:

I would argue that the first mistake was hiring Matt Rhule and letting him bring his college staff and have near total control of the roster.

Nah. The first mistake was Richardson being forced into selling the team to Tepper instead of one of the other bids.

Edited December 5, 2021 by jayboogieman

[Smithers]

43 minutes ago, Icege said:

That's considered in the walls of text, I promise! It's also highlighted in the bullet points at the end :3

Haha oops 

[Waldo]

We won't know 100% where the responsibilities of so many failures fall but it can be best summed up by Tepper hiring bad hires, who made so many bad decisions while coaching poorly and players performing at a low level on the field. 

Much more bad than good. There is no one personnel move that fixes the fact this crew is just bad at NFL football and that falls on Tepper for hiring these people. 

[KSpan]

2 hours ago, Smithers said:

Something else to consider - we are now paying Cam 10 million for a few games.  That’s 10 million we normally could have rolled into next years Cap that we now can’t.  That hurts

$4MM or more of that is dependent on Carolina winning the Super Bowl and Cam being named MVP, so it's realistically about $6MM.

[BIGH2001]

2 hours ago, jayboogieman said:

Nah. The first mistake was Richardson being forced into selling the team to Tepper instead of one of the other bids.

I wanted Ben Navarro. He seemed like he really wanted it too, he’s a local guy and less brash/abrasive/impulsive than Tepper. 

[The NFL Shield At Midfield]

2 minutes ago, BIGH2001 said:

I wanted Ben Navarro. He seemed like he really wanted it too, he’s a local guy and less brash/abrasive/impulsive than Tepper. 

The one who excited me the most was James Goodnight although he was a huge darkhorse.  

You want to talk about data driven approaches and analytics?  How about a literal statistician?

[Toomers]

12 hours ago, Icege said:

Before we start, this is not a pro-TB5 thread. anti-Tepper thread, nor is it a thread proposing that our record would be any better with him this season. This is a reflection on what the team has missed out on this season, and will miss out on next season due to the decision(s).

When David Tepper made less-than-supportive comments about Teddy Bridgewater last season, it was a matter of when rather than if the QB would be moved on from after the season ended. It also signaled that the owner would very much be involved in approving the talent on the Panthers' roster in spite of insisting that he was leaving the decision making up to his GM and head coach. This put pressure on rookie GM Scott Fitterer to appease his boss, and low and behold Matt Rhule was there to make a recommendation. While "scouting an NYJ defensive player" (presumably Frankie Luvu), Sam Darnold's "playmaking ability jumped out."

I'm wondering what about Pat Elflein jumped out as well. 

When looking at Teddy Bridgewater's play, one thing lacked above all: a killer instinct, the desire to hang in there and make a play happen rather than bailing out to live another day. That safe approach works when a QB can challenge a defense to open up, but with Joe Brady's uninspired play design + play calling, Teddy's midseason knee injury, and Teddy's tendency to never go big but just go home drove a notable risk-taker like David Tepper absolutely bonkers. While scouting defensive free agents, the staff saw in Darnold a guy that was willing to be that gunslinger that Tepper wanted.

Fitterer got to work on making a deal, offering a 2021 6th, as well as a 2022 2nd + 4th to acquire Sam Darnold from the Jets. Not only that, the team believed so much in Sam as well as their ability to coach him up that they took the 5th year bonus option on his rookie contract, guaranteeing him $18M next season. Fast forward to now, and Sam Darnold is on the IR with an incomplete scapula fracture. That isn't the real story though; the real story is that Sam regressed so bad that it left the staff with no other option should they were to compete right away like the boss wanted: they needed to get a starting QB in free agency somehow just passed the middle of the season.

Enter Cam Newton.

With cap space already tight, the Panthers organization went out of their way to mend their relationship with the former franchise QB. Cam got himself a story book return, but things didn't just come tumbling back down to earth... they plummeted in a fiery ball of disappointment and sadness. All of the Panthers' weaknesses reared their fugly heads the following week, and once again the coaching staff failed to find a way to counter the counter. While the team is still mathematically in the playoff hunt, they're going to have to try for it without veteran starting CB Donte Jackson (who is designated for free agency) and superstar RB Christian McCaffrey (who is set to jump from the 5th highest paid RB @ $6.9M to the 4th highest paid RB @ $14.3M in 2022). They'll have Cam though, who will get the Bye week to try and get more familiar with Joe Brady's offense that seems to have been figured out by opposing defensive coordinators. The staff clearly believes that this team can get to the playoffs with Cam, as they're giving him $4.5M with incentives (up to $1.5M for being active every game, $500k per playoff win where he plays 50% of the snaps (up to $1.5M), $1.5M to take 50% of the Super Bowl snaps, and $1M if named the Super Bowl MVP) to play just a third of the season to get the team there. But Cam alone isn't enough to cover up a porous OL, inexperienced OC, and butter-fingered WRs. So now, here we are: mathematically still in the playoffs, but the odds are showing that we're likely planning for next year making the "win now" investments sunk costs.

When we start to look at all of the bad decisions, it gets overwhelming. So let's take a look at the first decision this offseason that really set the team back: moving on from Bridgewater. Would this team be much better with Teddy? Doubtful. Despite being backed by the current #3 defense, an average OL, weapons, and a steady run game... Denver only has 6 (7 if they beat the Chiefs tomorrow) wins compared to Carolina's 5. But what would the team have this season had they followed through with Teddy being a bridge QB after showing that he wasn't a franchise QB? Let's first take a look at what this team has now invested in the QB position this season and next already:

• 2021: $17M dead cap for Teddy
• 2021: $4.7M salary for Sam
• 2021: $6M-$10M for Cam
• 2021: 6th round pick
• 2022: 2nd round pick
• 2022: 4th round pick
• 2022: $18.86M for Sam

This totals out to $46.56M - $51.56M in cap space as well as a 2nd, 4th, and 6th round draft picks. Having stayed the course with Teddy would likely have us looking at a similar shittacular season to what we're having now, but the team would also have so much more to work with going forward. That $21M folks were bemoaning paying Teddy? Now the team is spending $6M more this season to potentially limp to a pick in the early teens, which is about where fans said Bridgewater would leave us in purgatory at. The painful irony though? That compensatory 6th round pick that we traded last season for Sam? You know... that day 3 pick that didn't seem like much? Welp... the Kansas City Chiefs ended up acquiring it when they manufactured a trade with the Jets where they swapped picks in the 5th and 6th rounds. This allowed KC to move up in the 5th from #175 to #162 to select Noah Gray out of Duke, and then slide back in the 6th from #205 to where the Panthers would have selected at #226. That selection for the Chiefs? ...Trey mother fuging Smith.

Now the Panthers have nearly $19M committed to Sam Darnold when they need to find a way to retain Haason Reddick, Frankie Luvu, Stephon Gilmore, and/or Donte Jackson. They are without a top 50 and top 115 picks in the upcoming draft as well. For perspective... the #50 pick recently was Azeez Ojulari and the #115 pick was Jabril Cox. Both players have looked solid for their respective teams. Could you imagine looking at a team next year with an OL consisting of Christensen-Smith-Linderbaum-Brown-Moton and a 2nd + 4th in the 2022 draft?

Ooh wee mayne.

 

 

tldr; if the team rode out the original Bridgewater stopgap plan, they could have had:

• $6-10M extra cap space for 2021
• Nearly $19M ($40M if Teddy is cut) extra cap space in 2022
• Trey Smith
• 2022 2nd round pick (currently projected to be a top 50 pick (2021 #50: Azeez Ojulari))
• 2022 4th round pick (currently projected to be a top 115 pick (2021 #115: Jabril Cox))
• But still no QB

  Where’s the extra 6M Teddy would have got to stay this year. Or the 5M of dead cap in 2022? Or the 3rd round comp pick he cost? Getting rid of a 1 year/31M mistake on what I was assured was a “team-friendly” contract(lol) isn’t the issue. It was doing the exact same thing again. Guaranteeing way too much money to QBs who never showed anything to deserve It. Something pointed out numerous times when all these moves happened. 
 

  And the Panthers could have had 10 6th rounders and still not taken Trey Smith. They passed him up for a LS. Every other team should be embarrassed as well. 

[saX man]

The greater concern beyond all of this is that we simply look more flippant and indecisive rather than this look I think they want to project as supreme high QB standard.  If you're this high of standard, then don't go for reclamation projects and pretend these guys will be something they aren't.  We're just going nowhere.

[Icege]

1 hour ago, Toomers said:

  Where’s the extra 6M Teddy would have got to stay this year. Or the 5M of dead cap in 2022? Or the 3rd round comp pick he cost?

All addressed in the post you quoted at the bottom.

 

[Ivan The Awesome]

12 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

The decision to sign Teddy in the first place was the initial disastrous decision that kicked off the entire avalanche of bad decisions to follow.

 

I'm gonna one up you, the decision to MOVE on from Cam and not give him a shot was what really transpired this hell hole of a situation. 

 

They could have easily started Cam in IR designated to return if they didn't think he was ready to go and played WHOMEVER they had at the moment. First year coach they weren't gonna win either way, save yourself all the money and draft picks in the process, give Cam actual time to learn the playbook and time to evaluate his health. 

 

But eh...i guess Teddy was the saviour of this whole situation.